Blackhawks Salary Cap in 2011-12: An Updated Perspective

With news that Brent Seabrook’s deal is done, now is an appropriate time to look at the Blackhawks’ cap situation moving forward.

Back in mid-January, we looked at some potential numbers for the Hawks next year. However, now that we have a locked-in number for Seabrook, we can add him to the list of existing contracts.

Here are the contracts already written for next season:

Brian Campbell

$ 7.143

Jonathan Toews

$ 6.300

Patrick Kane

$ 6.300

Brent Seabrook

$ 5.800

Duncan Keith

$ 5.539

Marian Hossa

$ 5.275

Patrick Sharp

$ 3.900

Niklas Hjalmarsson

$ 3.500

Dave Bolland

$ 3.375

Nick Leddy

$ 1.117

Bryan Bickell

$ 0.542

John Scott

$ 0.513

Total

$ 49.304

The current salary cap in the NHL is $59.4M, and expecations are that the cap could go up by as much as $4M next year. To be safe, we’ll use a cap of $62M for next season, a fairly conservative increase of $2.6M.

As we discussed back in January, Jeremy Morin and Marcus Krüger should both factor into the mix next year. Let’s now add their deals to the list above.

Jeremy Morin

$ 0.917

Marcus Krüger

$ 0.900

Total

$ 1.817

That is 13 players under roster totalling $51.121M. Using our conservative baseline figure of $62M for next year’s cap, there is roughly $10.8M left to spend filling the 2011-12 roster.

What do we have so far?

Forwards

Patrick Sharp – Jonathan Toews – Patrick Kane

Bryan Bickell – Dave Bolland – Marian Hossa

Jeremy Morin – Marcus Krüger – ___________

TBD-TBD-TBD (John Scott)

That isn’t a terrible group, with the top six intact from this year. Morin has seen action in the NHL, and GM Stan Bowman has expressed strong hopes for Krüger.

Defensemen

Duncan Keith – Brent Seabrook

Brian Campbell – Niklas Hjalmarsson

Nick Leddy – _____________

This is something Hawks fans can be truly excited about. The Blackhawks have their top five defensemen locked up through next year, and with Nick Leddy maturing with each game the options for Bowman will be open.

What about the restricted free agents on the current roster? Here are a few players the Blackhawks will have to negotiate with:

Troy Brouwer

Corey Crawford

Jake Dowell

Michael Frolik

Viktor Stalberg

Alexander Salak

What could these players cost the Blackhawks? Here are a few conservative estimates:

Troy Brouwer

$ 2.500

Corey Crawford

$ 2.000

Michael Frolik

$ 1.250

Jake Dowell

$ 0.750

Alexander Salak

$ 1.000

Total

$ 7.500

If we add these restricted free agent deals to the roster listed above, the Hawks would be tight against the cap again next year. Indeed, the money being wasted on John Scott may cost the Hawks the ability to keep seven defensemen on the roster next year.

However, if we add these five restricted free agents to the 14 extisting contracts the Blackhawks have for next year, there are 19 players that should be in the NHL next year totalling roughly $58.62M.

That leaves a little more than $3.3M to add another defenseman to the team.

Moral of the story: the Blackhawks have spent a lot of money on a very good, championship-caliber core group of players. Now they need to get creative and fill out a roster with quality depth.